Wildest Dreams
by bravevulnerability
Summary: 'The strangled mewing sound that escapes the caving cardboard has her stopping in her tracks a mere step before she can reach him and she watches as Castle lowers the box to the ground, rising again with a tiny bundle of fur in his arms.' Post 7x06. Oneshot.


**Inspired by photos Stana, Nathan, and a few other members of the Castle team posted on twitter recently. Thank you to Karisa and Kayla for the enthusiasm and to Laura for the cover art.**

**Set after 7x06, The Time Of Our Lives.**

* * *

><p>"Yo, Beckett, what's taking your husband so long?"<p>

Kate bites her lip at that, not even able to feel the least bit ashamed over the fluttering sensation that spreads through her at the mention of Castle and his new title. He's her husband, he's been her husband for over a week, and she's still giddy with it.

"It's a disaster outside, Espo," she reminds him, satisfied with the flash of lightning and crackle of thunder that shakes the building and accentuates her point. "Be thankful he went out to get lunch at all."

He grumbles something in Spanish under his breath, harmless words about his hunger and Castle's long lunch run, and she shakes her head. Esposito and Ryan were both a bit hurt when she and Castle got married on such short notice, without them in attendance, but just like she had known they would, her boys understood the reasons for the impromptu ceremony. And they were happy for them.

The storm raging outside seems to have slowed the murderers of the city, her team has yet to be called out for a case, and she's grateful. The last thing she feels like doing is going out in the downpour and having the biting cold of the November winds seep even deeper into her bones.

"Hey, sorry I'm late."

Her head jerks up at the sound of his voice filling the bullpen and maybe it is a little ridiculous, the love haze they've been in since they finally became husband and wife, but she can't help it. Marrying him has seemed to send her falling deeper in love with him than she thought possible.

Her love is momentarily outshined by curiosity at the sight of him drenched and carrying a wilted cardboard box in his arms, LT following behind him with the large bag that she's sure holds their lunch.

Ryan's up first, relieving the fellow officer of their orders from Katz's, and craning his neck to take a peek inside the box Castle's cradling protectively.

"Oh no," Ryan groans, which has Esposito rising to see for himself, and soon Kate's following suit, crossing the bullpen in four long strides to find out what he could have brought here in that box.

The strangled mewing sound that escapes the caving cardboard has her stopping in her tracks a mere step before she can reach him and she watches as Castle lowers the box to the ground, rising again with a tiny bundle of fur in his arms.

"Oh no," she echoes, glaring at Esposito and Ryan when they both snort at her in amusement, because they all know, all four of them, what Castle has in mind.

"She was outside the precinct," Rick begins hastily, coming in closer and giving her a better view of the baby kitten shivering against his chest before she can reject the idea. "Just thrown against the side of the building, trapped in the box, getting rained on. She looked so scared, so helpless. Kate-"

She had expected begging, to have him playfully needling her about how they should keep the stray as a pet, but her husband appears truly distraught, worried eyes flickering between her and the kitten. It's freezing outside, the temperatures dropping further each day, and in combination with the pelting rain, the creature huddling against him for warmth may not even survive the next hour.

"Ryan, find a towel or a blanket?"

Kevin Ryan doesn't even question it, his own concern shining bright in his wide blue eyes, and he gives a quick nod before jogging towards a supply closet down the hall.

"I think we have a hot water bottle in there too, I read online that…" Esposito trails off when Beckett arches an eyebrow in surprise. "I've rescued a cat before," he defends, strolling around her with his shoulders pushed back and his chest puffed out.

Kate holds back her laugh and steps into Castle's side, her chin at his shoulder as she touches a gentle two fingers to the kitten's head, stroking the soaked fur between the pointed triangles of its ears. The animal can't be more than a month old, maybe two at most, and it's so tiny, so weak. Her heart breaks a little when its eyes slit open to look up at her, blue and pained, just like the man carrying it.

"How could someone just leave her out there?" Castle asks, cupping his large palm over the kitten's small skull. "Especially in this weather."

"People are cruel," she sighs, squeezing his hip with the hand that isn't covering his and the kitten.

"Can we take her home? We could just keep her for a few days, until we're sure she's okay, and then we could take her to a shelter and-"

"We'll take her home," she murmurs, accepting the hand towel Ryan brings her with an appreciative nod and working with Castle to snugly wrap what is apparently their new foster kitten in the terrycloth.

"Really?" he grins, huffing when Ryan tosses another towel at Castle's face.

"Why not?" she chuckles, holding the baby kitten while Rick attempts to dry his soaked hair. "We've kept a dog, a baby - this seems like the easiest of the three."

He checks over his shoulder, scanning his eyes over the closed blinds of Gates' office window, before he presses a kiss to her cheek.

"Love you, Kate. She will too."

* * *

><p>Of course Castle insists on stopping by a pet store on the drive home. The rain has stopped for the most part, a light drizzle still falling from the grey sky and drenching the streets, and she waits in the car while he runs into the shop, promising to be only a few minutes, to only get the essentials for the kitten that's currently sleeping and swaddled in a fresh towel, bundled up in the cup holder between their seats.<p>

Castle remains true to his word, emerging from the store no more than five minutes later, but the bag he comes out with causes her to believe he definitely bought more than essentials. God, their kids are going to be so spoiled.

_Their kids._

Her breath catches at the thought, her throat closing up at the image that comes too easily of the two of them, raising a family together. She wants a family with him, but they haven't talked about that yet. Not really. They haven't even-

"Hey, you okay?" he asks once he's back in the car with her.

"Yeah, fine," she assures him, too quickly, and his gaze narrows, but she speaks again before he can question her, before he can figure it out. "What the hell did you buy?"

She glances behind her before maneuvering out of the parking spot, catching another glimpse of the two giant bags taking up half of the entire backseat.

"Everything a baby kitten needs," he says with a shrug, retrieving said kitten from the cup holder and cradling her against his clavicle. Her fur has dried over the course of the day, revealing that the feline is hardly more than a ball of fuzz, a fluffy mélange of brown and tans covering the tiny body. It reminds Kate of a bobcat, the pointy ears dyed dark on the tips, the matching colored nose making the sharp blue eyes stand out like miniature sapphires. She has the potential to grow, to be fierce and strong in her appearance like a beast from the wild, but as Kate spares a glance from the road and catches the kitten nestling in closer to Castle, face tucked beneath his chin and savoring the comfort his exposed skin provides, she can't think of the cat as anything but lovable.

The ball of fuzz is slowly but steadily growing on her and it hasn't even been a day.

* * *

><p>"We can call it the kitty corner," Castle quips, glancing at her over his shoulder with a beaming smile that she rolls her eyes at. He's so proud of himself for setting up the litter box, the food and water bowls, and a plush cat bed in one corner of the living room all by himself while Kate and the kitten had watched him from the couch.<p>

"You're going to spoil her."

The kitten meows and she smirks, scratching softly between her ears, evoking the gentle purring noise she's becoming all too accustomed to. She had truly been afraid the cat may not make it, but the few hours they spent tending to her at the precinct have eradicated the chill that had shaken the little body so violently, the milk and wet chicken flavored food Castle had helped the kitten consume filling her with the strength she needed to make it past the near death condition.

Even Gates had helped when she had walked in on the four of them huddled around the feline in the break room, trying to keep their setup hidden from the captain. The captain had looked after the kitten for an hour on her own, insisting upon it, and Castle had looked at her as if they'd just witnessed a miracle when the woman disappeared back into her office with the kitten cuddled to her neck, cooing words of comfort to the animal.

"I think she likes you better still," he huffs, standing from the floor with a wince as his knees pop and she hides her smile, welcoming the warmth of his body when he plops down next to her on the sofa, curling an arm around her shoulders and dropping his cheek to rest against her temple.

"Must be a female bonding thing," she hums, stroking her fingers through the soft fur.

"Have you come up with a name?"

She bites her lip. "We shouldn't name her, Castle."

"But you already have," he points out. "I heard you talking to her when you thought I was still in the shower."

Damn him.

"So tell me," he presses, nuzzling the side of her throat until she relents.

"Meyla," she mumbles, practically feeling the intrigue, the questions, bubbling behind his lips. "It means 'little girl' in Icelandic."

"The fact that you know that makes me even more attracted to you."

She laughs, causing Meyla to wake from her nap against Kate's chest, eyes peeling back and staring up at her, so contemplative and quiet for a kitten so young.

"I was thinking, since I have the day off tomorrow, we could take her to the vet, just to make sure she's okay from earlier."

Castle nods and trails a finger down Meyla's prominent spine. "And to make sure she really is a little girl."

"Pretty certain she's a girl, Castle. We checked, remember?"

"But what if we were wrong and she turns out to be a boy? Then we'll have to change her name and that could be traumatizing. I don't want our kitten suffering an identity crisis," he hisses as if the dozing cat can actually understand them.

"She's not our kitten," Kate reminds him, curling her knees up and guiding Meyla down to rest on her stomach while she presses her back against Castle's side. "And if she turns out to be a boy, we'll just change her name."

He's quiet for a moment, toying with the loose strands of her hair as the rain starts up again, pounding against the glass of the living room windows.

"Meylark?"

She snorts a laugh and drops her head back against the arm behind her neck. She really hopes they get better with picking names in the future. It's hardly been a day, but just spending time caring for another creature with him for the third time in six years has made her certain, she wants a future with him. A future that includes a family of their own.

* * *

><p>"Castle, take her out of that."<p>

Rick pouts at her as she emerges from the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel.

"But look how cute and warm she is," he tries, lifting Meyla from his lap.

The kitten looks unaffected by the tiny Christmas sweater he's dressed her in and she just _knew _he'd come out of that store with something unnecessary, but she had yet to see it. Until now.

"No way," Kate argues, stepping into her flannel pants and squeezing the last of the water from her hair before coming for him and the kitten.

"Kate," he whines as she eases the sweater from Meyla's body. "She was going to wear that for our Christmas card."

She scoffs and fixes the kitten's disheveled fur, smoothing down the multicolored fluff and effortlessly lulling Meyla back to sleep in the crook of her arm.

"First of all, you already know we aren't keeping her. Secondly, since when do you do Christmas cards?"

He shrugs and sits back against the headboard, watching her with affection spilling from his eyes even as she drops the red and green mini sweater to the floor.

"I could start."

She rolls her eyes and starts towards the bedroom doorway.

"Where are you going?"

"To put her in her bed."

"I thought… don't you think she should stay with us for the night?"

"Castle, you bought her a perfectly warm bed and she'll be right in the next room."

"Well, at least let me tell her goodnight," he says before she can enter his office, slipping from the bed and meeting her in the doorway. "Night Meyla, sweet kitty dreams."

Kate can't help but smile when he kisses two of his fingertips and touches them to the kitten's head. Her sweet, dorky husband.

Meyla doesn't wake when she bends down and transfers her to the round, expensive little bed Castle bought for her, but even still, she feels a gentle pang of guilt at the thought of leaving her alone for a night after everything she's been through.

"I'll check on you every couple of hours," Kate promises, whispering to ensure Castle doesn't hear her talking to a cat, and she quickly mimics his move from a few seconds ago, kissing her first two fingers and placing them to the top of Meyla's head.

When she returns to their bedroom, Castle is already lying down on his side, his phone in his hands, a soft smile on his face.

"Better not be looking at dirty pictures," she teases, crawling in next to him, dropping her cheek to his shoulder.

"No, I don't do that when you're home."

She smacks her hand against his chest, letting him catch her fingers while he passes the phone to her. His thumb glides back and forth over her wedding ring while she studies the screen and immediately adopts his smile.

"When did you take these?" she murmurs, touching her thumb to the photo he took of her with Meyla without her knowledge.

"While we were still at the precinct, after Gates gave her back," he informs her, bringing her knuckles to his lips as she swipes her thumb across the screen, a picture of the boys, Captain Gates, and then him with the kitten all making her lips curl upwards.

"You're cute," she hums, skimming her nail over his smiling face.

"Ruggedly handsome," he huffs, stealing the phone back and using his index finger to return to the picture he took of her. "This one's my favorite. I even made it my new wallpaper."

"I'm honored."

He has her hand twined with his and tucked beneath his chin and she scratches lightly at the smooth skin of his throat, eliciting a low purr that resembles the sound of the creature in the other room.

"I've got two kittens," she smirks, laughing quietly at the burst of indignation that spreads across his face and dissipates under determination a second later.

"You'll pay for that, Mrs. Castle."

She shivers at that and tugs him into her before he can pounce. She still goes by Detective Beckett at the precinct, but by law, she is Katherine Beckett-Castle, and it's been a week, but she loves when he reminds her that she's taken his name, that she's his wife.

* * *

><p>Rick wakes in the middle of the night to the soft sound of humming. He forces his eyes open, blinking past the blur of sleep to see Kate lying next to him in bed, Meyla atop her sternum.<p>

"You said we weren't letting her in the bed."

Her humming comes to a stop and she tilts her head towards him on the pillow they ended up sharing. He's always shifting closer to her in the night, always waking up tangled and curled around her, and sure enough, one of his legs is draped at her thigh.

"She was crying," Kate whispers, smoothing a palm over the kitten's back, and he watches the pocket-sized creature stretch and snuggle against her.

This maternal side to her, the caring, nurturing part that he's been lucky enough to see quite a few times in the years he's known her, has his heart swelling.

"If you're like this with the cat, our kid is going to end up sleeping in our bed all the time," he sighs, feeling her tense ever so slightly beside him, and he knows what he's done, what door he's opened up. But he wants to know how she'll respond, needs to know what she wants, if she wants anything more at all. He's happy like this, perfectly content to share this life with her and her alone, his wife, but if she were to want a family, a child with him… he would never tell her no.

"Every once in awhile couldn't hurt," she murmurs, chewing on her bottom lip when his eyes dart up to meet hers, and oh, he can picture it so clearly. He can see her with their child, bringing the baby into bed with her, keeping it cradled against the warmth and safety of her chest while she hums the infant back to sleep. "As long as we didn't make it too frequent of a habit. I'd still want us to have some alone time in our bed."

"Kate," he chokes, even as she smiles so brilliantly at him. He had been doing so well at playing it cool, but she just – she makes him so happy, happier than he could have ever imagined.

One of her hands abandons the kitten, reaching for him instead, drawing his lifted head back down to her, stealing the breath from his lips with a kiss. He thoughtlessly splays a hand at her stomach, slipping beneath the oversized t-shirt she wore to bed and brushing over the warm expanse of skin, the taut muscles. He smudges one final kiss to her mouth before settling his forehead against hers, squeezing her hand when it slides down to meet his over her abdomen, slotting her fingers into the spaces between his and allowing their interlocked hands to rest there.

"I want it too," she whispers, her eyes liquid gold in the darkness. "Not - not just yet, but… someday soon?"

He nods, bumping her nose affectionately, and the shy smile returning to her face spreads wider.

"Someday soon," he affirms.

"For now though," she begins, flicking her eyes down to the sleeping kitten between them. "What if we kept her?"

He smirks and eases onto his back, gingerly taking Meyla from Kate's chest and transferring her to his, allowing his wife to turn into his side, her head on his shoulder, her hand splaying over his heart.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to cave," he grins, chuckling when she digs her knee into his thigh beneath the sheet before hooking her ankle at his calf. "She's already ours. Has been since we brought her home, I think."

She nods, stretching her fingers so that her pinky grazes the kitten's paw and Castle buries one of his hands in Kate's hair, massaging his fingers into the back of her skull, just the way she likes, and watches as her eyes flutter closed.

His wife curls deeper into his side while the kitten curls beneath the curve of his palm, and they may not intend to bring a child into the world just yet, but he's quite certain they've already started a family right here.


End file.
